Spotlighting Pan-African Poetry

Biography

Previously Dissed

Previously Dissed

When I was young
I wanted to be bigger than Jesus
I grew out of that
When I had acne
I wanted to be Hitler
Gas all the people
With clear skin
When I thought I was smart
I wanted to outsmart
Einstein
That was dumb
Now I’m forty-five
I just want to get paid
And laid

There’s a lot of talk
These days
About the previously
Dissed
Brothers and Sisters
You still getting dissed
That didn’t stop
Except for window dressing
And a few name changes
Not even that
Piet Retief is still
Piet Retief
And this poem is in English
Not exactly a language
You could call native

And what about the elections?
You can stand in a queue
All day every five years
But the land is still theirs
As for me brothers and sisters
I just want to get paid
And laid

Previously dissed
My point
That you might have missed
Is that amandla lost the plot
When democracy got the vote
Instead of nonkululeko
Nowadays it’s all the white folks
Going “Viva Nelson Mandela”
With their fists in the air
Yes indeed
There’s a lot of talk
These days
About the previously
Dissed

When I was young
I wanted to be bigger than Jesus
I grew out of that
When I had acne
I wanted to be Hitler
Gas all the people
With clear skin
When I thought I was smart
I wanted to outsmart
Einstein
That was dumb
Now I’m forty-five
I just want to get paid
And laid

There’s a lot of talk
These days
About the previously
Dissed
Brothers and Sisters
You still getting dissed
That didn’t stop
Except for window dressing
And a few name changes
Not even that
Piet Retief is still
Piet Retief
And this poem is in English
Not exactly a language
You could call native

And what about the elections?
You can stand in a queue
All day every five years
But the land is still theirs
As for me brothers and sisters
I just want to get paid
And laid

Previously dissed
My point
That you might have missed
Is that amandla lost the plot
When democracy got the vote
Instead of nonkululeko
Nowadays it’s all the white folks
Going “Viva Nelson Mandela”
With their fists in the air
Yes indeed
There’s a lot of talk
These days
About the previously
Dissed

Aryan Kaganof

Featured Poem:

The Funeral

Featured Poem:

The Funeral

I went to my own funeral
They were playing that celestial music
The notes rang out as time dragged down
I slowly climbed the stairs
And every one of those stairs was sound
solidified
Like an organ made of stone

Then the coffin came into view
It was shining brighter than the Sun
But not quite as bright as the Moon
And I was unafraid ‘cos I’d been here before
so many times and I knew
I’d be coming back again

Then a woman started dancing
And I felt her rhythm when it crawled up my
feet
And became my rhythm too
We were both born in Gauteng
And the earth roared under our feet
I could see the sky through somebody’s eyes
But the eyes were not my own

Then we stretched our umbilical cords
From the Hillbrow Tower to Devil’s Peak
Where she played her silver bow
And every one of those notes rang true
And my heart stopped beating
‘Cos I didn’t give a damn
If I lived or died
All that mattered was her and her sound
As they lowered me into the ground

So say “cest la vie” to the broken-hearted
Say “bon voyage” to the newly-weds
Always say “I love you” to the one
You wake up next to
But O my sweet little darling
Don’t you ever say “forever”
Forever is a very short time

I went to my own funeral
They were playing that celestial music
The notes rang out as time dragged down
I slowly climbed the stairs
And every one of those stairs was sound
solidified
Like an organ made of stone

Then the coffin came into view
It was shining brighter than the Sun
But not quite as bright as the Moon
And I was unafraid ‘cos I’d been here before
so many times and I knew
I’d be coming back again

Then a woman started dancing
And I felt her rhythm when it crawled up my
feet
And became my rhythm too
We were both born in Gauteng
And the earth roared under our feet
I could see the sky through somebody’s eyes
But the eyes were not my own

Then we stretched our umbilical cords
From the Hillbrow Tower to Devil’s Peak
Where she played her silver bow
And every one of those notes rang true
And my heart stopped beating
‘Cos I didn’t give a damn
If I lived or died
All that mattered was her and her sound
As they lowered me into the ground

So say “cest la vie” to the broken-hearted
Say “bon voyage” to the newly-weds
Always say “I love you” to the one
You wake up next to
But O my sweet little darling
Don’t you ever say “forever”
Forever is a very short time

Comments

Biography

Aryan Kaganof (born 1964 as Ian Kerkhof) is a South African film maker, novelist, poet and fine artist. His books include Drive-Thru Funeral, Tombstone Dues, Post-Mortemist Poems as well as the much funnier Ballad Of Sugar Moon And Coffin Deadly. Best known for inventing the “feelbad” movie genre with such audience pleasers as SMS Sugar Man.

Aryan Kaganof

Biography

Aryan Kaganof (born 1964 as Ian Kerkhof) is a South African film maker, novelist, poet and fine artist. His books include Drive-Thru Funeral, Tombstone Dues, Post-Mortemist Poems as well as the much funnier Ballad Of Sugar Moon And Coffin Deadly. Best known for inventing the “feelbad” movie genre with such audience pleasers as SMS Sugar Man.

Previously Dissed

Previously Dissed

When I was young
I wanted to be bigger than Jesus
I grew out of that
When I had acne
I wanted to be Hitler
Gas all the people
With clear skin
When I thought I was smart
I wanted to outsmart
Einstein
That was dumb
Now I’m forty-five
I just want to get paid
And laid

There’s a lot of talk
These days
About the previously
Dissed
Brothers and Sisters
You still getting dissed
That didn’t stop
Except for window dressing
And a few name changes
Not even that
Piet Retief is still
Piet Retief
And this poem is in English
Not exactly a language
You could call native

And what about the elections?
You can stand in a queue
All day every five years
But the land is still theirs
As for me brothers and sisters
I just want to get paid
And laid

Previously dissed
My point
That you might have missed
Is that amandla lost the plot
When democracy got the vote
Instead of nonkululeko
Nowadays it’s all the white folks
Going “Viva Nelson Mandela”
With their fists in the air
Yes indeed
There’s a lot of talk
These days
About the previously
Dissed

When I was young
I wanted to be bigger than Jesus
I grew out of that
When I had acne
I wanted to be Hitler
Gas all the people
With clear skin
When I thought I was smart
I wanted to outsmart
Einstein
That was dumb
Now I’m forty-five
I just want to get paid
And laid

There’s a lot of talk
These days
About the previously
Dissed
Brothers and Sisters
You still getting dissed
That didn’t stop
Except for window dressing
And a few name changes
Not even that
Piet Retief is still
Piet Retief
And this poem is in English
Not exactly a language
You could call native

And what about the elections?
You can stand in a queue
All day every five years
But the land is still theirs
As for me brothers and sisters
I just want to get paid
And laid

Previously dissed
My point
That you might have missed
Is that amandla lost the plot
When democracy got the vote
Instead of nonkululeko
Nowadays it’s all the white folks
Going “Viva Nelson Mandela”
With their fists in the air
Yes indeed
There’s a lot of talk
These days
About the previously
Dissed

Featured Poem:

The Funeral

Featured Poem:

The Funeral

I went to my own funeral
They were playing that celestial music
The notes rang out as time dragged down
I slowly climbed the stairs
And every one of those stairs was sound
solidified
Like an organ made of stone

Then the coffin came into view
It was shining brighter than the Sun
But not quite as bright as the Moon
And I was unafraid ‘cos I’d been here before
so many times and I knew
I’d be coming back again

Then a woman started dancing
And I felt her rhythm when it crawled up my
feet
And became my rhythm too
We were both born in Gauteng
And the earth roared under our feet
I could see the sky through somebody’s eyes
But the eyes were not my own

Then we stretched our umbilical cords
From the Hillbrow Tower to Devil’s Peak
Where she played her silver bow
And every one of those notes rang true
And my heart stopped beating
‘Cos I didn’t give a damn
If I lived or died
All that mattered was her and her sound
As they lowered me into the ground

So say “cest la vie” to the broken-hearted
Say “bon voyage” to the newly-weds
Always say “I love you” to the one
You wake up next to
But O my sweet little darling
Don’t you ever say “forever”
Forever is a very short time

I went to my own funeral
They were playing that celestial music
The notes rang out as time dragged down
I slowly climbed the stairs
And every one of those stairs was sound
solidified
Like an organ made of stone

Then the coffin came into view
It was shining brighter than the Sun
But not quite as bright as the Moon
And I was unafraid ‘cos I’d been here before
so many times and I knew
I’d be coming back again

Then a woman started dancing
And I felt her rhythm when it crawled up my
feet
And became my rhythm too
We were both born in Gauteng
And the earth roared under our feet
I could see the sky through somebody’s eyes
But the eyes were not my own

Then we stretched our umbilical cords
From the Hillbrow Tower to Devil’s Peak
Where she played her silver bow
And every one of those notes rang true
And my heart stopped beating
‘Cos I didn’t give a damn
If I lived or died
All that mattered was her and her sound
As they lowered me into the ground

So say “cest la vie” to the broken-hearted
Say “bon voyage” to the newly-weds
Always say “I love you” to the one
You wake up next to
But O my sweet little darling
Don’t you ever say “forever”
Forever is a very short time

How does this featured poem make you feel?

Previously Dissed

Previously Dissed

When I was young
I wanted to be bigger than Jesus
I grew out of that
When I had acne
I wanted to be Hitler
Gas all the people
With clear skin
When I thought I was smart
I wanted to outsmart
Einstein
That was dumb
Now I’m forty-five
I just want to get paid
And laid

There’s a lot of talk
These days
About the previously
Dissed
Brothers and Sisters
You still getting dissed
That didn’t stop
Except for window dressing
And a few name changes
Not even that
Piet Retief is still
Piet Retief
And this poem is in English
Not exactly a language
You could call native

And what about the elections?
You can stand in a queue
All day every five years
But the land is still theirs
As for me brothers and sisters
I just want to get paid
And laid

Previously dissed
My point
That you might have missed
Is that amandla lost the plot
When democracy got the vote
Instead of nonkululeko
Nowadays it’s all the white folks
Going “Viva Nelson Mandela”
With their fists in the air
Yes indeed
There’s a lot of talk
These days
About the previously
Dissed

When I was young
I wanted to be bigger than Jesus
I grew out of that
When I had acne
I wanted to be Hitler
Gas all the people
With clear skin
When I thought I was smart
I wanted to outsmart
Einstein
That was dumb
Now I’m forty-five
I just want to get paid
And laid

There’s a lot of talk
These days
About the previously
Dissed
Brothers and Sisters
You still getting dissed
That didn’t stop
Except for window dressing
And a few name changes
Not even that
Piet Retief is still
Piet Retief
And this poem is in English
Not exactly a language
You could call native

And what about the elections?
You can stand in a queue
All day every five years
But the land is still theirs
As for me brothers and sisters
I just want to get paid
And laid

Previously dissed
My point
That you might have missed
Is that amandla lost the plot
When democracy got the vote
Instead of nonkululeko
Nowadays it’s all the white folks
Going “Viva Nelson Mandela”
With their fists in the air
Yes indeed
There’s a lot of talk
These days
About the previously
Dissed